Pastor Terry Jones arrested, prevented from burning Korans on 9/11

The sheriff maintains that Jones broke the law by illegally transporting Kerosene and are charging him and his associate pastor with “unlawful conveyance of fuel” which is a felony:

WFLA – Polk County sheriff’s deputies arrested Pastor Terry Jones, 61, and his associate pastor, Marvin Sapp Jr., 44, each on a felony charge of unlawful conveyance of fuel as they traveled in a pickup truck towing a large barbecue-style grill filled with Qurans soaked in kerosene. Jones had said he was heading to a nearby park to burn 2,998 Qurans – one for every victim of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Sheriff’s officials said Wednesday night that Jones was also charged with unlawful open-carry of a firearm, a misdemeanor, and that Sapp faces a charge of having no valid registration for the trailer. He says Fire Department air tests confirmed the kerosene could have exploded.

“And it showed that it was flammable at that time while he pulled it down the road. So he was potentially driving a bomb down the road had there been a crash,” said the Sheriff.

In the video below they also mention that the trailer Jones was pulling that carried the Korans had no tag, no safety chain, and no lights.

Below is the news report where the Sheriff explains why Jones was arrested:

I don’t know about you but that last line hit me the wrong way. If these were kerosene-soaked Bibles would they check with a local pastor to see what they wanted to do with them? Probably not.

Really, after watching this I’m left with the feeling that the Sheriff was going to prevent the Koran burning one way or another. I think he had his deputies ready to stop and arrest Jones before he got underway.

Despite all that, Jones clearly didn’t dot his i’s and cross his t’s, basically giving deputies reason to arrest him. He should have known better.


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